Tributes to
Dr. Pinkhos
Churgin
Pages 2, 4, 31
Re I igious
Question in
U. S. Census
Editorial, Page 4
T E JEWIF7T
E
S
fr
bash
A
Weekly Review
da
Events
An Artist at
Malben in
Israel
Pisgah Lodge's
3 Elder
Statesmen
*
Michigan's Only English-Jewish New
'orating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
Printed in a
-7
VOLUME XXXII — No. 14 100%
Union Shop 1 7100 W. 7 Mil
Commentary,
Page 2
-f—Detroit 35, December 6, 1957 $5.00 Per Year; Single Copy 15c
B G,
Hammt.::skjold Accord:
Avert Israel-Jordan
Crisis
1
-
Gerard Swope Left Bulk of
Estate to Israel's Technion
Announcement was made Wednesday at the offices of the
American Technion Society that Gerard Swope, who passed
away two weeks ago, left the bulk of his estate to the Technion.
Swope, former president of the General Electric Corpora.
tion, honorary president of GE at the time of his death, pro-
vided in his will that his bequest, which is expected to provide
Technion with several million dollars, is _to be used for
student loan fund to send Technion graduates to Massachusetts a
Institute of Technology for further studies to be followed by
scientific research at the Technion in Haifa.
The distinguished engineer had long interested himself in
the work of Technion. Last May he attended the meetings of
the Technion board of governors, in Israel, and was at that
time awarded a Technion honorary doctorate.
Acknowledging the Swope bequest, Gen. Yaakov Dori,
president of Technion, who will be in Detroit on Jan. 4 to
address the annual Technion dinner, expressed the Israel
engineering university's gratitude for Swope's benefactions.
Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News
JERUSALEM—A smiling Israeli Premier announced to the press Wednesday
night that "an arrangement has been reached on the convoy" through the Jordan
lines to the Israeli-held gnclave on Mount Scopus just outside Jerusalem.
Premier David Ben-Gurion's announcement came at the conclusion of the third
meeting held that day. Ben-Gurion, flanked by smiling but brisk-mannered UN
Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold and grim-faced UN Truce Chief Col. Byron
V. Leary, described the meetings of the last two days as "useful discussions."
After an early two-hour private meeting between the Premier and Secretary .
General, Hammarskjold flew to Amman for a 90-minute parley with King Hussein,
his Foreign Minister and the Jordan Army Chief of Staff. Hammarskjold and the
Jordanians conferred on Jordan's conditions for allowing the convoy with gasoline
to pass to Mount Scopus and Israel's insistence upon an extra convoy going through
to make up for the one halted two weeks ago. A UN spokesman said that before
Hammarskjold leaves the Middle East he and the Jordanian Foreign Minister will
exchange letters outlining the agreement on Mount ScOpus.
Nine drums of gasoline were included in Israel's convoy to Mount Scopus on
Thursday.
Hammarskjold was guest of Premier Beri-Gurion at a tea party on Wednesday,
and he later left for Damascus for conferences with the Syrians.
United Nations circles said Wednesday that there would be no change in Col.
Leary's status "for the time being." The fact that no
Rachel's Tomb:- Robbed and Desecrated UN source would make an unconditional statement on
Col. Leary's position gave rise to new speculation that
By A Special Correspondent . . Exclusive to The Jewish News
the Jordanians had not backed down on their original
The Tomb of Rachel has always been a source of spiritual nourishui
Di to Jews from ail
demand that he be removed. Hammarskjold came flying
over the world. Today, the sight of Rachel's Tomb is heartbreaking.
to the _Middle East originally after Jordan authorities
Obscene slogans are smeared across its dilapidating walls. Dead-yellow weed is creeping
wildly all round it and is embracing piles of rust-eaten cans and garbage. Fat flies are buzz-
charged Col. Leary with favoritism toward Israel and
ing over pools of dry excrement.
refused to deal with him.
This outrageous pollution of the Tomb began with the outbreak of Israel's War of In-
No convoy went up Mount Scopus Wednesday but
dependence, when the High Command of the "Palestine Liberation Army" pitched in the vicin-
reports
in UN circles indicated its dispatch Thursday.
ity of Rachel's Tomb, a tent-camp which sheltered a field-hospital and one regiment of relief
Hammarskjold, Ben-Gurion and Foreign Minister
troops. Recently the camp was dismantled and all that remained of it is the nearby field ceme-
tery with some 200 graves of Palestine Arabs who fell in the Gush Ezion battles, and—the
Golda Meir on Tuesday discussed the full range of the
garbage.
Israeli-Jordan armistice problems.
Many Arab Christians live in Bethlehem. They admit that they knew all along what was
Present also were Army Chief of Staff Moshe
happening to Rachel's Tomb. Had they really wanted, they could have intervened with the
authorities and stopped , the outrage. Asked why they did nothing of the sort, they shrug:
Continued on Page 3
"What could we civilians do? We must play ball with the army or else!"
What about the "noble officers of the Jordanian Army" who could have easily prevented
the revolting desecration of Rachel's Tomb? They were stationed there, knew about it and did
not dip a finger. Perhaps they even inspired the desecration, to, give an outlet to the bitter-
ness of their men, caused by the thrashing theY received in battle.
CYPRUS
The entrance to Rachel's Tomb is blasted open. The candlesticks, the furniture and the many
prayerbooks have vanished. The place had been ransacked. The hundreds of Arab thugs in
Med iterraneci nIEBANO II
uniform, who dwelt in the nearby camp, polluted the interior with dirty caricatures of Ben-
II /-0
)ba
S nl
YaR
scuivit
/i
Gurion and Golda Meir, skull-and-crossbones, swastikas.
/
'Sea
The
Tombstone
itself
is
desecrated
in
the
most
outrageous
manner
by
obscene
drawings
such as are often seen in public lavatories.
The Holy Ark is shattered. The Torah-rolls had been looted, or destroyed. The remnants
Je° r A usn pi i r eam
6 '' . ■ -.
of the Ark serve as a cupboard for the few shady possessions of Azaz ibn-Salim—the self-ap-
pointed Moslem "attendant" of Rachel's Tomb.
Between a jump across the border to Israel, with a load of hashish, and between jail-
ibn-Salim dwells in the Tomb and "for Havaja Friman I even keep the floor clean."
Solomon Friman, born in Palestine, was the last Jewish attendant of Rachel's Tomb;
position handed down from father to son for three generations. He served in this position for a
34
years.
Ibn-Salim claims that Friman is an old friend of his and the only Jew whom he would
not take apart with a switchblade. According to ibn-Salim, their friendship began shortly before
—International
the outbreak of the 1936-1939 Arab riots in Palestine. "The police were after me like jackals,"
AREA
ARAB-ISRAEL BORDER DISPUTE
grins ibn-Salim. "And even if Havaja Friman is a Jew and me, al-hamdullillah, a true believer,
he
hid me from the police and gave me food. So, Mashallah! When the trouble with the Jews
started, I used to slip away and warn him so that he should hide his throat and not have it
cut. I had a camel. That's how we became friends. Friends? Wallahi—brothers!"
Ibn-Salim is sorry because the present upheaval in Jordan prevents people from passing
by Rachel's Tomb on the arid way to Bethlehem. (This area is under military rule.) In the past,
Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News
he remembers, he made quite some money out of it. He sold half a ton of scrap, about 20 dozen
JERUSALEM—In
what appeared- to be a security measure,
candles, But he did keep the floor clean "for Havaja Friman".
Hammarskjold arrived here a half hour ahead of the time
On the other hand, some sort of relationship does seem to have existed between Friman
and his smelly "successor"; because ibn-Salim knows a most interesting inside story about the that Israel officials said he would come. '''' «`
Since top Foreign Ministry officials were
visitors' books of Rachel's Tomb.
on hand to welcome UN officials at the
At the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war, there were 26 leatherbound 1000-page volumes
full of visitors' signatures. Friman could not come to Rachel's Tomb to save anything because Mandelbaum Gate, press representatives
complained they had been misled. They
he was in Jerusalem and already wounded. But ibn-Salim remembered that "Havaja Friman liked
cited promises that Hammarskjold would
best the books of the years 1936 and of 1932 so I looked them up." Ibn-Salim saved the two not
be "smuggled through."
precious volumes which contained the signatures of George Bernard Shaw and King Alphonso
In preparation for his talks with Is-
of Spain. -
officials, Hammarskjold went to UN
"I would have returned them to Havaja Friman if I could, bikhyat Allah I would if I rael
headquarters to confer with his advisors.
could!" swears he. But since he could not: "I sold them both to a tourist for 25 Dinnari. Per-
Col. Byron V. Leary, acting chief of staff
haps a tourist Americani", but the busy 'attendant' is not sure. According to the philosophy of
of the UN Truce Supervision Organiza-
his life, if one gets hold of 25 Dinnari without having the police at one's heels—one screams
tion, whose ouster Jordan is demanding
without asking any questions. And that is precisely what ibn-Salim did.
on charges he favored Israel in the Sco-
Such is the fate of Rachel's Tomb today, and most probably of all relics of Judaism in
pus
convoy controversy, went to Kalandia
Arab territory. Every nondescript tramp ,can get away unpunished with desecrating, ripping to Airport
in Jordan to meet Hammarskjold
Col. Leary
shreds and destroying the few remnants of Jewish history, culture and religion. Yet not the
and accompanied him across the Mandelbaum Gate.
tramps but the Arab governments must be made responsible and must bear the consequences.
Hammarskjold's press officer told the Arab press that if
This is an issue not only between the Arabs and World Jewry: it concerns everybody.
The Arab governments must be forced to
the
UN
official failed to obtain an agreement during his
protect and to preserve the sacred places of
current visit on the settlement of the Scopus controversy,
all religions within their territories, even
he
if it takes a special decree by the International Court.
might refer the matter to the UN Security Council.
-
T U R K E Y •
I R A CI
JORDAN. ]
SAUDI
ARABIA
-
OF
flaminarskjold's Arrival in
Israel Causes Press Crisis